The Reason for Princess Kate's Trip to Italy Is Surprisingly Contentious

The Princess of Wales announced an exciting trip to Italy—her first official overseas visit since 2023—to further her work with The Royal Foundation for Early Childhood. The princess will spend two days in Reggio Emilia, Italy’s famed educational epicenter, where the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education was created. Princess Kate hopes to learn more about the approach and what makes it so special during her visit.

A Kensington Palace spokesperson said that Princess Kate is looking forward to seeing “first-hand how the Reggio Emilia approach creates environments where nature and loving human relationships come together to support children’s development.” The emphasis on the environment and relationships is key to the Reggio Emilia approach. Princess Kate’s work in early years emphasises that “through the natural world and the warmth of human connection, we begin to lay the foundations for a resilient and healthy future.”

The Reggio Emilia pedagogy is world-renowned for being the gold standard in early childhood education, but it does not come without controversy. Only schools in the Reggio Emilia region, led by the Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia are true Reggio Emilia schools. There is no certification or standardization of the practice outside Italy. Everything else is merely Reggio-inspired. Outside of this idyllic Italian city, educators struggle to replicate the cultural and historical commitment to the practice—that is, the environment and the relationships key to the program’s success.

The schools also face criticism for their lack of structure and concrete curriculum—something that experts praise of the pedagogy, but that is very hard to standardize or assess in a modern world. “Will a child learn a letter of the week? No. Will they learn about literacy? Oh yes,” Jane Racoosin, director of the Reggio-inspired Beginnings Nursery School in Manhattan, told The New York Times. “Literacy and math learning are all embedded,” Racoosin said. While the key concepts are introduced, many Reggio-inspired preschoolers will arrive at kindergarten with less technical phonetic knowledge than their peers.

Princess Kate’s trip aims to highlight the Reggio Emilia practice, and learn more about how to apply those successes into early childhood education. In 75 years of practice, educators haven’t been able to replicate the success outside of the tiny Italian town, but perhaps the Princess of Wales’s influence can work its royal magic.